AMD, Intel in shares see-saw

Up, down, shake it all around, do the Hokey Cokey

The share price of AMD fell by a couple of bucks this morning after its precipitous ramp yesterday. But it did not drop as much as Intel's price, which fell by over five dollars after Merrill Lynch issued a warning on the stocks. Merrill Lynch has shoved Intel down a notch to "accumulate" rather than "buy", following yesterday's news from AMD. Other Wall Street analysts are now promoting AMD as a buy, following reports from the firm that it could break even in Q4. More worryingly for Intel, the Merrill Lynch report expresses doubts about whether the Merced-Itanium will work wonders in the marketplace. Those doubts were also expressed by a source close to Compaq earlier today, who compared the platform unfavourably with Alpha Wildfire technology due out in February of next year. AMD's share price stood at $26 1/8th and Intel's price at $75 13/16th at the time of writing this report. Intel's close partner Rambus Ink has had a see-saw of a week too. Its share price shot up to over $90 earlier this week, but had subsided to around $85 at press time. Meanwhile, it is apparent that memory companies will try to help the i820 (Caminogate) motherboard platform out at Comdex, which starts on Sunday. Melco will show a number 800MHz and 711MHz RIMM modules at the show. Other Rambus partners are likely to follow suit. The Register will have two staffers at Comdex/Fall. ® See alsoAMD future roadmap recalls World War IICompaq Wildfire to debut February 2000